Special Projects 2022-2023

Graduate Student Symposium

The CSLP was pleased to support the 2023 Graduate Student Symposium at Concordia University in collaboration with the Department of Education, and to play host to the event on Saturday, March 25, 2023.

Both undergraduate and graduate students were encouraged to submit their abstracts and share their current research projects with the wider community. The symposium focused on interdisciplinary approaches to education, training, teaching, and/or learning.

A keynote presentation was delivered by Dr. Mitchell McLarnon entitled Mapping social and environmental relations: Institutional ethnography as an interdisciplinary method of inquiry.

Both faculty members and students attended the day-long conference and listened attentively to the innovative research projects led by students. The engaging conversations explored the complexities of education both in theory and practice.  Attendees voted on prizes and the symposium was pleased to announce the following winners of the “People’s Choice Awards”:

• Paper Presentation First Prize: Vitor Yano
• Paper Presentation Runner-up: Adèle Aubin
• Poster Presentation First Prize: Elaheh Khademi

Pedagogical Innovation Awards

The Pedagogical Innovation Awards and Symposium looks to acknowledge and reward teachers who implement creative practices in their classrooms by offering them a prize and the opportunity to promote their innovation and discuss it with peers and researchers. Any teacher (full-time or part-time) in a government-recognized public or private elementary or secondary school in Quebec is eligible to apply for these awards (two prizes of $1,000 each), which have three purposes:

• To recognize innovative teaching practices.
• To bring teachers together with educational researchers to discuss how their innovations connect with recent research findings.
• To spread the word about these innovative practices to other teachers and researchers.

Team

Project leads

• Isabelle Gauvin (UQAM)
• David Waddington (Concordia)

Team members

• Holly Recchia (Concordia)
• Karine Villeneuve

Students

• Adele Aubin
• Tessa McLean

Technological innovation

Innovations of this kind could include new uses for computer programs, mobile phone applications, video games, or other kinds of digital tools to engage students.

Curriculum innovation

These innovations can include new Learning and Evaluation Situations (LES) that teachers have designed, fresh approaches to an especially difficult topic, or experiential learning activities that students do outside the classroom.

Outcomes

Over 50 nominations of excellent quality were received and were narrowed down to 2 winners. The first edition of the Pedagogical Innovation Awards took place on May 4, 2023 - find out who won and read our coverage of the event. The event featured educational researchers on hand to dialogue with the winners about their work. In addition, with technical assistance from the CSLP, winners will be invited to make a YouTube capsule to showcase their work to other teachers in Quebec.

Residency in Arts Education

The project is a knowledge transfer activity aimed at Art Education practicing teachers and young teachers. Students completed a multidisciplinary art residency, held at the CSLP, that focused on exploring obstacles in teaching and pedagogy. Students worked to develop a research creation project during the residency.

Team

Project lead

• Martin Lalonde (UQAM)

Team members

• Vivek Venkatesh (Concordia)
• David Waddington (Concordia)

Students

• Karine Blanchette
• Michel Poulin
• Emma June Huebner
• Jose Luis Cortez

Outcomes

Obstacles

Artists, teachers and researchers from various fields, including visual arts, performance, dance, cinema and video mapping explored how art can be used for communication, reflection, and problem-solving around emerging constraints.

A public exhibition and performance showcasing the work created during the residency took place on May 6, 2023, at the Center for the Study of Learning and Performance in its Research-Creation room (GA 2.221).

Evidence in Practice: A Podcast Series on Evidence-Based Practice

The Evidence in Practice series is intended for elementary and secondary school teachers who work with students in regular or special education. All the major francophone Montreal school boards are partners in the development of the series and form an integral part of the target audience: Marguerite Bourgeoys, Marie-Victorin, de Laval, de la Pointe-de-l'Ile et de Montreal.

Each episode will describe practices that have been the subject of recently published studies in scientific journals that are not typically available to the school community. Although they are based on scientific studies, the episodes are designed to be clear, interesting, and directly relevant to teachers.

Team

Project lead

• Eric Dion (UQAM)

Team members

• Robert Bernard (Concordia)
• Richard Schmid (Concordia)
• Stéphane Cyr (UQAM)
• Isabelle Plante (UQAM)
• Isabelle Gauvin (UQAM)
• Diane Querrien (Concordia)
• Eugene Borohovski (Concordia)

Students

• Frédéric Tremblay

Outcomes

The Probantes en pratique podcast series is available online through UQAM, give them a listen.

UQAM also published a news item interviewing Eric Dion about the project.

Getting to the CORE of digital literacies

In the “Getting to the CORE of digital literacies,” two research assistants are analyzing feedback from teachers and students who have used the Critical Online Resource Evaluation (CORE) program.  The CORE program was designed with Quebec teachers for Quebec students to improve students’ ability to evaluate the credibility of online information in an era of mis/disinformation. Our team is taking this feedback and revising the program to make improvements.  We plan to expand the program to multiple grades—and offer a French translation--in the near future.

Team

Project lead

• Julie Corrigan (Concordia)

Team members

• Kim McDonough (Concordia)
• Heike Neumann (Concordia)

Students

• Dalia Elsayed
• Jessica White
• Brenagh Rapoport
• Masoumeh Zaare
• Catherine Clement

Lathe Cut Conversations

A series of discussions on the theme of innovative knowledge mobilization activities in learning and performance contexts will be held at the CSLP and the conversation will be recorded and cut to vinyl record using a special lathe installed in the Research-Creation room (GA 2.221), thus combining digital and analog technologies to produce a lasting artifact that will become part of a new archive housed at the CSLP. The first conversation took place on April 17 - read our coverage of the event here.

Team

Project lead

• Owen Chapman

Team members

• Jessie Beier
• Annabelle Brault
• Martin Lalonde

Future participants

• Holly Recchia
• André Gagné
• Brad Nelson
• other CSLP members

Students

• Angus Tarnawsky

EDI Practices in Universities in Quebec

A student from McGill has been engaged to prepare a review of the literature on equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) practices employed across universities in Quebec and Canada. This literature review includes analysis of several high profile, controversial cases in university settings that expose the complexity of upholding principles of equality and inclusion while remaining faithful to academic excellence and academic freedom. Drawing from other institutions’ engagement with EDI, this project aims to provide insights into whether an instituted EDI policy is the answer to resolving diversity and inclusion issues and offer suggestions of EDI policies for CSLP.

Team

Project leads

• Vivek Venkatesh (Concordia)
• Kevin McDonough (McGill)

Students

• Kevin Gu (McGill)

Outcomes

Estimated date of completion of May 2023.